Story and photos by John A. Bello
TAYABAS CITY, Quezon—Barely six years had passed since Tayabas became a city and almost 300 years as a township during the Spanish occupation of the country. It is only now under the administration of Mayor Ernida Reynoso that this city is catching up to find its own footing in modernity and progress.
“Right now, our priority is on education with the construction of the Southern Luzon State University [SLSU] in a 50-hectare lot in Barangay Ibabang Palale, dubbed ‘SLSU in the 21st century’, and the establishment of a government center in a 10-hectare lot in Barangay Baguio to house all our local offices, including that of the national agencies,” the mayor, 73, said in her office inside the Casa de Comunidad de Tayabas, declared a national historical landmark by the National Historical Institute.
That day, she was interviewed while she was in the midst of administering marriage to three young couples and oath of office to two newly appointed young employees of the city’s engineering office.
Even on a Saturday, the Casa de Comunidad—where Quezon hero Apolinario de la Cruz, more popularly known as Hernando Puli, was tried and sentenced to death in 1841—bustles with people with various concerns to speak with Reynoso, who arrived at 9 a.m. to start her regular chores.
A wedding godmother to a young couple on that busy day was former First District Board Member Alona Obispo who bussed the mayor, apparently forgetting their electoral rivalry during last year’s mayoralty election here.
The mayor, a first-termer after serving as town and then city councilor for several terms, said she is done with politics after the elections. She is focused on her job, especially since the town’s people expect their public officials to deliver the goods.
“On May 9 we will be having our groundbreaking for the construction of the first building of our SLSU, a P10-million, 24-room affair as my attempt to establish an enduring legacy in the field of education for the succeeding generations of Tayabas,” Reynoso told the BusinessMirror.
On April 17, a memorandum of agreement was signed on the SLSU project by Reynoso and President Milo Placino of the SLSU main campus in Lucban. The signing was witnessed by members of the Sangguniang Panglungsod led by Vice Mayor Nick Abesamis.
“Malaking bagay po na magkakaroon ng SLSU ang Tayabas dahil maraming napasok sa SLSU–Lucban ay mula sa Tayabas. Mahihimok na magpatuloy ng pag-aaral hanggang kolehiyo lalo pa at abot-kamay na nila ang pampublikong paaralan na mag-aakay sa kanila sa katuparan ng kanilang pangarap,” said Sigrid Fadrigalan, a teacher of Grades 10 and 11 at Luis Palad National High School.
This city does not boast of any notable college or university yet. It has several public and private elementary and high schools, like Luis Palad National High School in the city poblacion, Quezon Science High School in Barangay Isabang; Tayabas East Central and West Elementary Schools; and private schools like Saint John Bosco Academy, San Roque Paroquial School and Our Lady of Victory Integrated School.
“Sa ngayon, upang makapagpa-tuloy ang mga mag-aaral ay nadayo pa sa mga kalapit bayan, maging sa Maynila, upang makapagkolehiyo,” Fadrigalan said.
But even if it is not an academic center for higher education in Quezon province, Tayabas has produced distinguished personalities, such as Hermana Fausta Labrador, founder of Sacred Heart College in Lucena City; the late award-winning movie actress Paraluman; Victor Emmanuel Carmelo “Vim” Nadera Jr., a 2003 10 Outstanding Young Men awardee for Literature; the late playwriter Orlando Nadres; and Heidi Mendoza, a commissioner at the Commission on Audit and appointed undersecretary-general for the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight and dubbed “truth teller” for exposing civilian and military corruptions in the government.
Route to cityhood status
BEFORE Tayabas became a city in 2011, it has been a town founded in the 18th century during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines. It was the capital town of Tayabas province from 1749 to 1901, before it split into the two provinces of Aurora and Quezon.
Quezon province was created on September 7, 1946, by the late President Manuel Luis Quezon with its current 39 municipalities and two cities of Lucena and Tayabas. Occupying a total land area of 230.95 square kilometres with 66 barangays, Tayabas has 99,779 people, according to the 2015 population census.
The long route to cityhood started when the late Quezon Gov. Rafael Nantes, then Quezon First District representative, filed in the 11th Congress House Bill 12878, entitled “An Act Converting the Municipality of Tayabas, Quezon into a Component City to be Known as the City of Tayabas” and was referred to the Committee on Local Government by the House of Representatives on February 5, 2001. While the bill was pending before both Houses of Congress, Senate Bill 2157, which called for the amendment of Section 450 of Republic Act (RA) 7160 (The Local Government Code of 1991) by increasing the annual income requirement for conversion of a municipality into a city from P20 million to P100 million, was passed and became law on February 24, 2001 as RA 9009.
The House of Representatives of the 12th Congress adopted Joint Resolution 29, which exempted from the P100-million income requirement 24 municipalities, including Tayabas, whose cityhood were not approved in the previous 11th Congress. During the 13th Congress (2004-2007), the House of Representatives took up and readopted Joint Resolution 29 as Joint Resolution 1 and forwarded it to the Senate.
However, the Senate failed again to approve it. Sixteen municipalities, including Tayabas, filed individual cityhood bills through their respective sponsor-congressmen. The bills each contained a common provision exempting it from the P100-million income requirement of RA 9009. On December 22, 2006, the House of Representatives approved the cityhood bills and the Senate approved the same in February 2007. These lapsed into law from March to July 2007, after then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo failed to sign them.
On March 18, 2007, by virtue of RA 9398, the municipality of Tayabas was converted into a component city of Quezon Province. It held a plebiscite on July 14, 2007. Even with a low turnout, the majority of voters favored the conversion of Tayabas to cityhood.
However, on November 18, 2008, Tayabas and 15 other cities lost their cityhood status after the Supreme Court granted a petition filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines and declared unconstitutional the cityhood law, RA 9398, which allowed the towns to acquire their city status, saying they did not pass the requirements for cityhood.
Tayabas and the 15 other cities affected by the SC decision filed a motion for reconsideration on December 10, 2008, and more than a year later, on December 22, 2009, the SC reversed its earlier ruling. On August 27, 2010, the 16 cities again lost their city status after the SC voted to reinstate the 2008 decision declaring as ‘unconstitutional’ the RAs that converted the 16 municipalities into cities. On February 15, 2011, the SC made another turnaround and upheld for the third time the cityhood of the 16 towns. Finally, on April 12, 2011, the SC, in an en banc ruling, affirmed the cityhood of the 16 towns and on June 28, 2011, it issued an entry of judgement on the cityhood case of the 16 towns, including Tayabas.
It was a long route to cityhood, said Manolo Labitigan, acting as executive assistant to the mayor, but it was worth it.
He said the administration of the mayor is focused on five areas of development: Education, Agriculture, Resources, Tourism and Housing, or EARTH or inversely HEART, reflecting the mayor’s way of going about her job—always doing it with her heart—in attending to her various constituents.
“The mayor is now preoccupied with relocating 1,607 poor families now living in various danger zones of the city. The city government has already bought 10 hectares in Barangay Ayaas for 600 families to 700 families.
“A loan for socialized-housing program is eyed for those who will be paying through amortization for 25 years,” said Labitigan, who personally assists the mayor in her official chores and is expected to be detailed for the housing program of the city government after the one-year ban of political candidates before they are allowed to take up government positions.
Labitigan ran an unsuccessful bid for the city council during last year’s elections. All but two members of the city council were won by political allies of the mayor, which included her own daughter Maria Lourdes, nicknamed “Lovely”, who chairs the SP Committee on Tourism, Health, Youth and Sports Development.
Historical assets
LABITIGAN takes pride in the city’s historical assets, such as Casa Comunidad de Tayabas—constructed in 1776 and served as guesthouse for visiting dignitaries during the Spanish colonial period. It has a prison facility and got burned down around 1882-1883, but was reconstructed into a public school during the American period. The historical building was destroyed again in the war bombing in 1945. In 2000 it was reconstructed by the National Historical Institute (NHI), which now houses the local museum and the city library, and hosts many cultural and historical activities spearheaded by the mayor.
Labitigan also cited the city’s centuries-old stone churches, namely, the Minor Basilica of Saint Michael the Archangel, the largest Catholic church in the entire province; Nuestra Señora de Angustia built in 1838; the Sanctuario de las Almas built in 1855, a former cemetery and now a place for devotees of San Diego de Alcala; and Camposanto de los Indios, a cemetery built in 1887.
The city also boasts of centuries-old stone arched bridges, such as the 446-foot Malagonlong Bridge in barangays Mateuna and Lakawan, considered a National Historical Treasure by the NHI. It was built in 1840-1850 and the longest bridge during the Spanish colonial era with approximately 100,000 adobe blocks used.
Malagonlong Bridge and 11 other historical bridges are being threatened by the road-and bridge-widening projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). They are Puente de Prinsesa in Barangay Ibas, Puente de Bae in Barangay Dapdap, Puente Despededas and Puente de Ese in Barangay Camaysa, Puente de Alitao in Barangay San Isidro Zone III, Puente de Lakawan in Barangay Lakawan, Puente de Mate in Barangay Mate, Puente de Isabel II in Barangay Malao-A, Puente de Urbiztondo in Barangay Malao-A, Puente de Don Francisco de Asis and Puente de Gibanga in Barangay Calumpang, all in Tayabas City.
Oplan Sagip Tulay, a task force group of the city government, has protested the desecration being done on the historical bridges, saying the construction workers are replacing clay bricks with box culvert and replacing the historical structural design of the bridges.
Members of the Sangguniang Panglalawigan Aileen Buan and Claro Talaga Jr. have taken up the cudgels for the preservation of the Spanish-era bridges of Tayabas and the SP has set a committee hearing to summon the DPWH, the city mayor’s office and other concerned parties to resolve the issue.
Even as the city struggles to preserve its glorious past, it is also groping for its own place under the present-day scheme of things. Tayabas City is home to various business establishments that cater to foreign and domestic visitors and tourists that can well compete with its counterpart in other cities of the neigboring provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal that make up the Calabarzon region, the ZON being Quezon.
Reynoso said the new City Government Center will house the new city hall building, and various national government agencies, such as the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the National Food Authority and other government agencies.
The mayor said they have landbanked 4 hectares and, if the 10-hectare lot is completed, they will build the new city government complex.
Labitigan said the city government will be converting the present public market area into a commercial district area to be leased to private traders and investors, while a 3-hectare new city public market building will be constructed in Barangay Wakas.
So far, the city does not have a mall and fast-food chains, except one Jollibee branch in Barangay Calumpang and a Max’s Restaurant in Barangay Isabang.
Both have a steady stream of customers. Its Nawawalang Paraiso Resort and Hotel, Kamayan sa Palaisdaan, Mi Casa en Tayabas, Buddy’s Resto, Mainit Hot Spring, Villa Cecilia Resort and Hotel, El Pescado Bar and Café and Graceland Estates and Country Club—a sprawling leisure estate and resort in Barangay Camaysa—draw local and foreign tourists.
Small diner-friendly eateries dot the main streets of the city. Visitors and travelers visit the Tindahan ng mga Kakanin (native delicacy store) in Kalye Budin, a portion of Emilio Jacinto Street just a few blocks away from the city public market, where freshly baked budin, nilupak (pound cassava or balinghoy cake), tikoy (localized Chinese sticky rice cake), lambanog (coconut vodka), uraro (arrowroot cookies) and other delicacies can be bought and brought home as pasalubong.
City of festivals
TAYABAS hosts Mayohan sa Tayabas, which starts on the first week of May and lasts for 15 days. It features valued traditions, including the Komedya, Mukha competition of young unmarried females, contest of pregnant women, palakihan at paligatan ng suman; Pugahan, where a search for the Reyna Elena is conducted while singing is done by participants.
There is also the Turumba Festival during Holy Week, when Tayabenses dance as a thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary in the main thoroughfares of the city; Taytsinoy Festival from February 2 to 5 as part of Chinese New Year; Aguyod Festival, where local residents hone their talents and skill in dances and performing arts on stage; commemoration of Hermano Pule every November 4; the holding of Araw ng Tayabas on August 13, which commemorates heroism of local Tayabenses and renewal of commitment to service through unity and social bonds.
Image credits: John A. Bello